Lev Parnas

Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas and his business partner were arrested in 2019, accused by the U.S. government of funneling a Russian oligarch’s money into American political campaigns. One recipient of Parnas’ donations -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis -- has said he was barely an acquaintance.

Florida businessman Lev Parnas was convicted Friday on charges of conspiracy to make foreign contributions to political campaigns, according to multiple outlets.

Why it matters: Prosecutors said Parnas, then an associate of former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, funneled over $150,000 from a Russian businessman into U.S. campaigns as part of an effort to land licenses in the U.S.'s legal cannabis industry.

One of the more disturbing aspects of Donald Trump’s plot to extort Ukraine for personal gain is the matter of former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. According to Rudy Giuliani, the consensus was that they “needed Yovanovitch out of the way“ because she “was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody,” i.e., she wasn’t going to stand by and let the U.S. pressure Ukraine into announcing it was looking into nefarious activity by Joe Biden.

Lev Parnas was once so close to Rudy Giuliani, he named Giuliani his son's godfather. Now Parnas is cooperating with the Trump impeachment inquiry.

The state funeral for former President George H.W. Bush in 2018 featured a who's who of U.S. political heavyweights.

The nation's four living former presidents and their wives were in the first row of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Alongside were President Donald Trump and his wife. Bush's eldest son, former president George W. Bush, sat nearby with his wife and extended family.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff appears to have mischaracterized a text message exchange between two players in the Ukraine saga, according to documents obtained by POLITICO — a possible error the GOP will likely criticize as another example of the Democrats’ rushed effort to impeach President Donald Trump.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) appears to have “mischaracterized” a piece of evidence used in the Democrats’ impeachment investigation, Politico reports.

The problematic evidence stems from a letter the House Intelligence chairman sent to House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler (D-NY) last week.

The White House will block any attempt to summon Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas to testify in the Senate impeachment trial, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Parnas, who was involved in Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, made explosive claims regarding President Trump’s involvement in Ukraine during a series of interviews released on Wednesday.

Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas was in contact with at least two major Trump campaign donors-- one with an official role in the Republican National Committee-- during his efforts to pressure Ukraine into opening politically motivated investigations, documents released by the House Intelligence committee this week revealed.

“A close associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden… Parnas made several potentially explosive claims in an extended interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, segments of which were aired Wednesday and Thursday.” (AP News)

Newly released documents suggest that Ms. Yovanovitch was being watched in Kyiv while she was the U.S. ambassador there.

The police in Ukraine have opened a criminal investigation into whether allies of President Trump had the United States ambassador to the country under surveillance while she was stationed in Kyiv, the Ukrainian government said on Thursday.